Thursday, June 6, 2013

And then there was an avocado the size of my head...


Hello, friends and family!
I have finally arrived in Nairobi! The past three days (two days? I'm honestly not quite sure how much time has gone by) have been crazy. Let me fill you in.
Flying itself has been a trip. I began emotionally in San Francisco. I was so afraid that I wouldn't succeed at my work and travel and being open to new experiences. Part of it is because I still feel young and naiive...to inexperienced, maybe. The other part is a lack of self confidence. I've never done anything like this. However, I have started thinking that it's because this is so new, I'll embrace it, learn, and grow through the unknown. In San Francisco—at the depths of my uncertainty—everyone was incredibly nice. The woman at security asked me what I was flying for and when I told her, she couldn't have been more excited for me. On top of that, everyone just wanted to help and there was one open seat in my row. Overall, it was a successful flight. Also, there were two women with funky straw caps and dressed in quirky tropical colors. They looked like little happy cherries and pears. It was adorable!
The gate for my next flight (Denver to Minneapolis) was right across the way, so I ended up speaking with Joeva until I had to get on the plane. Sleep and Jo definitely helped my nerves. It took us a little while to take off and the flight ended up being so smooth that when I woke up from a nap, I had forgotten that we were even flying. By the time I got to Minneapolis and bought a new camera battery charger, I was feeling much more confident; soon enough, excitement replaced nervousness.
Funny enough, I almost left my batter charging in the wall of the Minneapolis airport. Whoops! Anyway, I slept and made friends with the flight attendants who also offered words of encouragement. So I sat back, took a break from reading a Jomo Kenyatta book, and listened to Alt-J's “An Awesome Wave” all the way through while sipping on tea and looking out the window.
I got to Newark early so I decided to call Jackie and allowed more time than I probably should have because by the time we hung up and found Alice (another intern from UP); Alice and I then shared our uncertainty of the gate number not being listed for our next flight that was supposed to leave in half an hour. Finally, with twenty minutes till take-off, we learned from some United Airlines workers that we had to exit Terminal C, check with Swiss Airlines to get our gate number (they switched airlines on us), and go through security in order to get to Terminal B. I'm not sure what we were thinking, but we stopped at a small store to pick up an adapter and some chocolates for Alice's host family. We then took off and sprinted through the Newark airport. We persuaded our way to the front of the security check and dashed to gate B67 with our laptops and sandals in hand to find that we had seven minutes to get new boarding passes and attempt to freshen up before getting on the plane.
Despite the craziness, the flight went incredibly well. Swiss Air is quite swanky with its personal entertainment systems, comfortable seats, and delicious food. I was seated next to a man who spoke only either Greek or Polish or Russian...I'm not sure which. Either way, I read, ate, watched part of Pulp Fiction, slept, ate, watched more of Pulp Fiction, and landed in Zurich.
Alice and I walked around Zurich all day. It's a very beautiful and very small city. In just three or five hours we had been to five of the seven things on the list of “Seven Free and Amazing Things to do in Zurich” that we googled when we mooched some free wifi from Starbucks (yes, I am ashamed). The two remaining items were ice skating and visiting a toy museum. It's summer, so the former was unattainable; also, toy museum. We opted to sit on benches lining a lake that housed many swans and ducks. Zurich is beautiful and everything is beautiful and I have many pictures that I will hopefully be posting soon.
We ended up sleeping in the airport that night...I woke up every hour on the hour, but sleep is sleep and I appreciated every minute of it. Being in the airport at night is very interesting...I kept waking up to people cleaning the floors, random people sitting a few rows away, and other sorts of maintenance workers. I wonder what they all were thinking when they saw two young and rugged women sleeping on those chairs.
Anyway, the last flight when well. It was seven hours long and I sat next to a girl named Elaine. She is with five other students from Brown who will be interning at a non-profit in Nairobi for seven weeks. There were actually a LOT of people my age on that flight! I started talking with a few of them while waiting to get our visas, but they were called up to the front of a new line, so I didn't get to find out what they were doing. Everything went way too smoothly in the airport. I had always heard how crazy it was, but I had no problem at all.
A man named Agape picked us up. He lives at the seminary and attends school for theology and will be graduating next year. Agape—otherwise known as “Aga” so that life is easier—is the great driver, greatest laugher, and greatest joker. He is so welcoming and nice. We had supper with him, Brother John from New York, Patrick from Uganda, and another man whose name I forgot from Nairobi. We had a delicious meal of rice, ugali, fish, and kales. Kales! Ugali! Kales and ugali! The two notorious foods. Towards what I thought was the end of supper, Brother John pulled out a large thing that I thought was going to be a mango because of its size—nope! It was the biggest avocado I have seen in my entire life. Huge. Half of one is more than a normal one you'd find in Raleys or Safeway. I can tell I'm going to like it here.
The six of us sat and joked and talked about home and the latest soccer match. According to Aga, Kenya graciously let the other team win for the sake of good hospitality. Ok, Aga. I'm not sure what the next few days holds for us, but I'm not too concerned. Until next time!

3 comments:

  1. Kales and ugali! Delicious?! Yes, you are going to like it there. You are going to love it.

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  2. Cherries and pears! I hope the two young and rugged women fare well. Also avocados.

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